Camogie Club Championship coverage proudly sponsored by Clare Credit Unions
*Truagh/Clonlara’s Roisin Begley. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
LOSING key personnel to season-long injuries has built the resilience that has led Truagh/Clonlara to push for a third senior title in four seasons.
Truagh/Clonlara won their maiden senior championship in 2023, a year later they won their first Munster title and went on to contest the All-Ireland decider where they lost to Sarsfield 1-9 0-4 in December 2024.
Along the way they have been crippled with a plethora of serious injuries in which star forward Roisin Begley labelled “our ACL curse”. She was among the players sidelined with the dreaded anterior cruciate ligament injury, former Clare player Becky Foley was forced into retirement in her early twenties while at some stage or another they have also been without key players like Eimear Kelly, Michelle Power, Laura Foley, Niamh Powell and Lisa Moloney.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Roisin recounted, “Six years ago we made our first county final, I wasn’t playing that year because I was out with an ACL injury, it was the first of our ACL curse so we’ve been there ever since, the more you get into the more you want to win especially having won two already, we want to make the most of the team we have right now, you don’t know when people are going to stop playing and when you won’t have who is in the dressing room right now, we want to make the most of what we have and work as hard as we can”.
She continued, “In previous years our injuries have been crazy, the first year we won the county title we were missing Eimear Kelly, Michelle Powell, Sophie Cullen was in goals for the first time because Lisa Moloney had done her ACL for the first time, Sinead Ryan was out. The next year we were missing more, Becky Foley was only coming back that year, Niamh Powell was out, we just had so many long-term injuries that it definitely makes you more resilient because every day we were going out we were missing people and the others have to stand up, that has really brought on our players who are only coming on, they are now starters because they had chances to show themselves and nail down their positions”.
On theories surrounding their “ACL curse”, Begley said, “maybe there is something in the water and we’ll have to get onto the County Council, we’ve been good this year and if anything we have got people back. Unfortunately we’ve lost Becky Foley, she’s had four surgeries so she is done playing camogie, we’d love to have her, other teams I’m sure are delighted we don’t have her, she is an absolutel workhorse and had a lot to do with our success, particularly in 2024”.
Twenty six year old Roisin who is a primary school teacher across the border in Ballina maintained that Truagh/Clonlara were threatening a breakthrough before their first final appearance in 2020. “The first year we lost in a replay so we actually could have done it that year, we were very close that year and then Scariff/Ogonnelloe tipped us in the replay, I don’t think you have to lose one to win one, that is not the way sport works, it depends on the day, who shows up and who works harder, maybe that is the way it looks on the outset from our track record but we nearly got there on the first day”.
Coming up short in extra time to Inagh/Kilnamona in last year’s final has spurred on the South-East Clare side, she said. “Last year we had a long year the previous year so we were back late, we lost a good few to different injuries, we got them back this year, when it went to extra time last year I think we just ran out of stream, we didn’t have it in our legs last year and it did hurt, Inagh/Kilnamona were the the better team on the day, they were deserving winners and they are a fantastic team. We said when we came back this year that we have the same bunch and others coming back, we thought we have to give this a real crack and see can we get back”.
They got back to the decider with a terrific sixteen point turnaround seeing them dethrone Inagh/Kilnamona in the semi-finals. “It was nuts, I’ve never played in a game like that, at half time we were eight points down but there was a feeling that this isn’t over but that if we didn’t turn things on that it would be over and we won’t be training in next week and that it would be our first time in six years that we hadn’t made it to a final. When Laura Foley came up the pitch from the backs and scored a free and a big point after that the momentum just shifted our way, everything seemed to go right after that, we really enjoyed the second half and I’m sure Inagh/Kilnamona really enjoyed their first half but it was a game of two halves”.
Carrying the tag of favourites is something not discussed within their squad, she said. “As far as I’m concerned we were the ones that lost last year, we want to win this year, it doesn’t matter who you are playing. I know from listening to the Kilmaley girls and the management that they have huge character, they have experienced players and young girls that are used to winning, they have huge underage success and they are doing great work, we know we have to work hard, we did great last week to come out on top but if we play like that in the first half we’re under no illusion that Kilmaley won’t let us back into it, they are going to fight and push on”.
One of the standout players for Clare this season, she was named Player of the Month in May. Exiting at the quarter-finals for the second year in a row was a disappointment for the county, the Gillogue attacker admitted. “I had a good few days out with Clare, I was quite disappointed on the day of the quarter-final, I definitely wasn’t playing the way I can play but you have to take into account that we did have six games in seven weeks, Tipperary had only played three matches, they had breaks in between and didn’t have to win them so we were really up against it, I took a break for a week, went away for the week, I love going back to my club, they are the girls I played with. I grew up playing with Áine, Laura and everyone my age down in Doonass with the U12 boys, playing against the boys and that is what I love doing playing with those girls, they are childhood friends and I love going back to the club in August”.
